Bestselling Games of 2011 Led By Call of Duty, Just Dance & Skyrim

2011 was a big, bestselling year for two video game series: Activision's Call of Duty and Ubisoft's Just Dance. Those two franchises ranked #1 and #2 in U.S. video game sales last year, according to the NPD Group, but they also appeared elsewhere in the list of top ten software titles for 2011.

According to newly released NPD sales data, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was the bestselling game in 2011 across its many platforms (Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii). Its predecessor, Call of Duty: Black Ops, did well enough to rank as the sixth bestselling game of the year, giving the military shooter two spots in the top ten and a big wad of cash for publisher Activision.

Also ranking twice in the top ten was Just Dance 3 in second place and Just Dance 2 in ninth place. With Assassin's Creed: Revelations coming in tenth, that gives Ubisoft three bestsellers for the year.

Here is the top ten list, which includes one Wii exclusive title, one Xbox 360 exclusive title and zero PS3 exclusives.

On the hardware side, Microsoft boasts that its Xbox 360 was the bestselling console of 2011 in the United States, "outselling the second-place console by more than 2.7 million units." Microsoft announced at CES 2012 that it had sold 66 million Xbox 360s and 18 million Kinect sensors to date.